Dems go to Plan B in North Carolina

Top national and North Carolina Democrats have taken a series of unusual steps to protect their candidates in the Tarheel State — and President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign — from additional damage after a sexual harassment scandal rocked the state Democratic Party and weakened its chairman.

North Carolina was already an uphill battle for Obama even before the revelation in April that the NCDP’s then-executive director, Jay Parmley, was accused of misconduct by a young male employee. Parmley resigned. But Chairman David Parker managed to hang on to his job despite calls for his ouster from top state Democrats and pressure from officials in Washington.

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The result presents a challenge for the Obama campaign and other Democrats up and down the ballot, who must now find ways to tiptoe around state officials linked to a lurid harassment flap. Complicating matters further, Democrats will hold their presidential nominating convention in Charlotte this summer, an event that was suffering from fundraising difficulties even before the scandal broke.

Rather than backing away from the state, Democrats in North Carolina and Washington say they believe they can work around Parker. The chairman, they say, currently appears more focused on shoring up his own shaky political position and reaching out to local activists than taking operational control of campaign machinery. That leaves room for other national and other state Democrats to try and take charge of the situation — and most importantly, control the purse strings of the 2012 campaign.

“The Obama campaign appears to be dug in here and committed and working here,” said veteran North Carolina Democratic strategist Gary Pearce, a former adviser to four-term Gov. Jim Hunt. “The talk here is the Obama campaign and the [Lt. Gov. Walter] Dalton campaign feel pretty confident they can work around [Parker.]”

“The problem is,” he added, “who’s going to trust David Parker with a few million dollars? Well, nobody.”

Discussions are underway to set up a coordinated campaign apparatus between national and state Democrats for high-profile state campaigns — chiefly, the governor’s race between Dalton and former GOP Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory — and congressional races, three strategists said. To the extent that the state party is involved, it would only be one of numerous decision-makers at the table, and campaigns say they expect to be able to work with competent staff members there to maneuver around the mess with Parker.

“It’s going to be focused, it’s going to have the resources it needs … Because of what transpired [with the NCDP] I think there’s a clear difference in terms of participation and guiding hands,” said one knowledgeable North Carolina Democratic operative, who characterized Parker’s involvement as exceedingly limited.

“I think it would be safe to say that David Parker’s focused very much on the internal party politics and not the business of messing with these campaigns. The state convention is a big deal … That’s right in his wheelhouse,” the operative said, referring to the North Carolina Democratic convention on June 16. “I would say his participation in the day-to-day workings of coordinated campaigns, infrastructure, that kind of thing, is diminished.”